Here on Law and Disorder we will be showcasing the voices from a documentary project called Tracked in America. The project introduces the stories of 25 individuals who have been targeted by the US government. The stories span from World War I to the post-9/11 reality. This week, Law and Disorder hosts talk with Eric Shaw.

As covered extensively on Law and Disorder, the post-9/11 period has seen a dramatic expansion of government surveillance. Law enforcement has received extensive funding for this purpose. With little regulation and poor understanding of constitutional protections, the authorities have overstepped their bounds, especially in monitoring political activity. Eric Shaw is one of those citizens monitored by the US government.

Eric Shaw joined the U. S. Marines to foster those ideals at home and abroad and when he returned to civilian life years later, he lost respect for the U.S. government during the buildup to the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.

In this interview Eric describes how he organized anti-war demonstrations and the intimidating surveillance tactics. He was stunned when riot police shot at him and other peaceful protesters at a very well known demonstration in Oakland, California but Shaw refuses to be silenced.

Boston subway search policy – No Probable Cause?

The Massachusetts MBTA recently enacted a search policy whereby transit police can search any passenger on the public transit system for any kind of device or substance that could be used as a weapon. They can use canine units to sniff through your belongings, electronic scanners and perhaps most frightening, they can do so without probable cause.

In response to this new search policy, volunteers have formed the Safe-T Coalition to education commuter at selected subway stations about how this recent policy severely infringes our civil liberties. The “T” is what Bostonians call their transit system. The coalition is handing out informational fliers and buttons that read “I Do Not Consent to a Search.”

We hear an excerpt from the nearly one hour interview Law and Disorder co-hosts Michael Ratner and Michael Steven Smith conducted with author Al McCoy.A Question of Torture is a revelatory account of the CIA’s secret, fifty-year effort to develop new forms of torture, historian Alfred W. McCoy uncovers the deep, disturbing roots of recent scandals at Abu Ghraib and Guant?namo. Far from aberrations, as the White House has claimed, A Question of Torture shows that these abuses are the product of a long-standing covert program of interrogation.
Developed at the cost of billions of dollars, the CIA’s method combined “sensory deprivation” and “self-inflicted pain” to create a revolutionary psychological approach—the first innovation in torture in centuries. The simple techniques—involving isolation, hooding, hours of standing, extremes of hot and cold, and manipulation of time—constitute an all-out assault on the victim’s senses, destroying the basis of personal identity.Lynn Stewart Sentencing – WBAI listeners

Law and Disorder brings you the voices, attorneys and Lynne Stewart’s first statements following her sentencing from the steps of the courthouse near Foley Square in downtown Manhattan, New York City. Hundreds of Lynne Stewart supporters were corralled into a pen on the sidewalk and you’ll hear police shouting at supporters. We begin with comments from demonstrator Irene Sadek, Lynne Stewart supporter – Law and Disorder co-hosts Michael Smith and Michael Ratner, excerpts from the Lynne Stewart press conference and conclude with amazing details from inside the courtroom in an exclusive Law and Disorder debriefing of attorney Jeff Mackler.

Updates:

Military Commissions Act 2006

Habeas Corpus

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Law and Disorder brings you the voices, attorneys and Lynne Stewart’s first statements following her sentencing from the steps of the courthouse near Foley Square in downtown Manhattan, New York City. Hundreds of Lynne Stewart supporters were corralled into a pen on the sidewalk and you’ll hear police shouting at supporters. We begin with comments from demonstrator Irene Sadek, Lynne Stewart supporter – Reverend Anthony P. Johnson, Law and Disorder co-hosts Michael Smith and Michael Ratner, Lynne Stewart at press conference and conclude with amazing details from inside the courtroom in an exclusive Law and Disorder debriefing of attorney Jeff Mackler.

“The judge noted her past in issuing sentence saying: “She has represented the poor, the disadvantaged and the unpopular (and she had) enormous skill and dedication (earning little money for doing it). It is no exaggeration to say that Ms. Stewart performed a public service not only to her clients but to the nation.” Judge Koeltl cited the many hundreds of letters of support Stewart received from law professors, former prosecutors, retired judges and former clients. One or more of them came from Ramsey Clark, a man of such enormous stature and eminence himself, he can’t be ignored.”

“This is it guys, we’re talking about a Police State.” – Michael Ratner

The Military Commissions Act was recently signed into law. Law and Disorder hosts Michael Ratner and Michael Smith discuss the implications in the context of what this means for the Habeas Corpus law, US citizens, US non citizens and Guantanamo detainees. Hosts also discuss Halliburton and KBR contracts to build detention centers in the United States. Law and Disorder will have more on detention centers in the weeks to come. Death of Habeas Corpus – Keith Olbermann

Brecht Forum – If It’s Not Facism, What Is It? Who Benefits & Why Now?

There appears to be a major transformation in progress. Bourgeois democracy, however limited and constricted it has been, is being revamped. The separation of powers, first enunciated by the founders, hardly exists any more. The Executive branch has overpowered Congress and the Judiciary. Neither the corporate media, the two party system, nor the unions provide much of a countervailing force. With the defeat of the Soviet Union and the “Socialist Block” imperialism has launched wars to consolidate capitalism and oil control in Yugoslavia, Afganistan, Iraq and Lebanon. The standard of living for the American working class and middle class is being rolled back quickly; only profit margins of the large corporations and the top one per cent are expanding. Democracy is not an abstraction, but a tool and an aspect of the class struggle. Thus we are experiencing a consolidational of wealth and power that is historically qualitatively transformative. Understanding what is going on is the first step in fighting it.

This week we hear talks from:

Bertel Ollman – We hear an excerpt from Bertel Ollman, professor of politics at NYU, and has written and edited over a dozen books, including Alienation: Marx’s Conception of Man in Capitalist Society, Social and Sexual Revolution: Essays on Marx and Reich, Dialectical Investigations, How to Take an Exam and Remake the World, and most recently Dance of the Dialectic: Steps in Marx’s Method. He is also founder of The International Endowment for Democracy

More on the Military Commissions Act of 2006 and the resulting demise of Habeas Corpus. During the WBAI fundraiser Michael Smith and Heidi Boghosian talked with attorney and incoming National Lawyer’s Guild president Marjorie Cohn.

Shortly after September 11, 2001, hundreds of non-citizens were swept up in the United States and detained in connection to the terrorism investigation without any evidence to connect them to terrorism or crime.

These men were arrested and detained based on their Muslim faith, their Arab or South Asian descent, and their immigration status, rather than any evidence to connect them to terrorism.

The “9-11 detainees” were imprisoned in the United States until they were cleared of any connection to terrorism by the FBI. This clearance usually took months, and some detainees were held for over a year.

During the detention period, many men were held in the most restrictive confinement that exists in the federal system. They were locked down 23 to 24 hours a day, hand-cuffed and shackled, deprived of sleep, beaten and verbally harassed, and denied the opportunity to practice their religion.

Since the men were released, at least two federal court judges have ruled that the treatment of the detainees would constitute violations of the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution.

This provision allows any one of them to be imprisoned indefinitely without their day in court. Now, they could be investigated, detained, interrogated, and tortured without judicial remedy. While U.S. law prohibits torture, this bill would deny access to the courts to bring a torture claim.

Updates:

Co-host Attorney Heidi Boghosian on the Cuban Five Case

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Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, William Blum, Nobel Laureate Nadine Gordimer, Michael Parenti and Leonard Weinglass spell out the grim realities of US aggressions against Cuba since 1898. In 1959, with the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, Washington implemented international terrorism as a tool of its foreign policy, and violence has become a doctrinal norm in world affairs. The fate of the Cuban Five, who traveled to the United States to investigate terrorist groups in Florida and then received life sentences for doing so, is also reviewed.

Guest – Salim Lamrani, researcher at the Sorbonne University of Paris. He is specialized in U.S.-Cuban relations since 1959, and has written articles translated in several languages and published all around the world.

Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque

In the past few weeks, events have been held around the country over the plight of the Cuban Five. Five courageous men who uncovered information about plans by anti-Cuban terrorists to commit acts of violence against that island nation. After the Cuban government turned over voluminous documentation of such plans, the five were indicted and tried in Miami on unfounded charges of conspiracy to commit espionage all without one page of evidence to corroborate such charges. The Cuban Five have been imprisoned for 8 years in maximum security facilities spread out across the United States. They’re in such remote locations that even visits from their attorneys are difficult. There’s also a media blackout on this story. Law and Disorder hopes this will change especially in light of recent revelations that the Bush Administration has poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into paying Miami journalists to plant misleading and erroneous stories on Cuba issues. In Washington DC, a large rally to the White House attracted 600 marchers and was followed by a panel of speakers including Len Weinglass.The event featured Esteban Lazo Hernandez, Vice President of the Cuban Council of State, director of its International Relations Committee and long time revolutionary leader.
We hear an excerpt from a speech delivered by Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque at the Church of the Intercession. Roque joined Esteban Lazo Hernandez, Vice President of the Cuban Council of State, director of its International Relations Committee and long time revolutionary leader.

This past August, a civil rights action was filed ordering 88 boards of elections in that state to preserve the voting ballots. The filing says the ballots are needed as evidence of official fraud, manipulation and discrimination that violated the rights of young and black voters.

These ballots are essential to political scientists and historians who hope to sort out the controversies and irregularities that surrounded Ohio’s 2004 election, a process that may take years, and that requires preservation of the ballots with Republican election officials in Ohio are pushing to destroy.

Joining us on Law and Disorder is Bob Fitrakis, co-author, with Steve Rosenfeld, of What Happened in Ohio? A documentary record of theft and fraud, to be published September 15 by the New Press.

Shortly after September 11, 2001, hundreds of non-citizens were swept up in the United States and detained in connection to the terrorism investigation without any evidence to connect them to terrorism or crime.

These men were arrested and detained based on their Muslim faith, their Arab or South Asian descent, and their immigration status, rather than any evidence to connect them to terrorism.

The “9-11 detainees” were imprisoned in the United States until they were cleared of any connection to terrorism by the FBI. This clearance usually took months, and some detainees were held for over a year.

During the detention period, many men were held in the most restrictive confinement that exists in the federal system. They were locked down 23 to 24 hours a day, hand-cuffed and shackled, deprived of sleep, beaten and verbally harassed, and denied the opportunity to practice their religion.

Since the men were released, at least two federal court judges have ruled that the treatment of the detainees would constitute violations of the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution.

This provision allows any one of them to be imprisoned indefinitely without their day in court. Now, they could be investigated, detained, interrogated, and tortured without judicial remedy. While U.S. law prohibits torture, this bill would deny access to the courts to bring a torture claim.

Progressive human rights attorney Lynne Stewart, accused of aiding terrorists, faces 30 years in prison. On Tuesday, April 9, 2002, she was arrested and agents searched her Manhattan office for documents. The government calls her a terrorist because of her legal work with Omar Abdel Rahman, a convicted Egyptian Islamic scholar and has demanded that Judge John Koeltl sentence her to Federal Prison for 30 Years.

We are really glad to have Lynne back with us in the studio again, the cold truth of this reality is that Lynne Stewart will be sentenced on Monday October 16th, fourteen days from today. Again as many listeners know this is a landmark case, an obvious attempt by the U.S. government to silence dissent, curtail vigorous defense lawyers, and instill fear in those who would stand up against the U.S. government’s racism, and seek to help Arabs and Muslims being prosecuted for free speech. Please visit Lynne Stewart’s website for events leading up to sentencing.

Sunday October 15 – Riverside Church, between 120 & 122nd Street and Riverside Drive, Manhattan 4:00 pmRALLY AND TRIBUTE; On the eve of the sentencing, a show of support and love for Lynne Stewart. A tribute to her legal career and to her political life.

We’ll also talk with author about class struggle and the relationship between democratic rights and the ability to make social change. Jack Rasmus is also an economics and labor journalist for Z magazine and the Dispatcher.

Cuban Five Update – Co-Host Heidi Boghosian, Executive Director of the National Lawyers Guild recently spoke at events supporting the release of the Cuban Five. In the past few weeks, events have been held around the country over the plight of the Cuban Five. Five courageous men who uncovered information about plans by anti-Cuban terrorists to commit acts of violence against that island nation. After the Cuban government turned over voluminous documentation of such plans, the five were indicted and tried in Miami on unfounded charges of conspiracy to commit espionage all without one page of evidence to corroborate such charges. The Cuban Five have been imprisoned for 8 years in maximum security facilities spread out across the United States. They’re in such remote locations that even visits from their attorneys are difficult. There’s also a media blackout on this story. Law and Disorder hopes this will change especially in light of recent revelations that the Bush Administration has poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into paying Miami journalists to plant misleading and erroneous stories on Cuba issues. In Washington DC a large rally to the White House attracted 600 marchers and was followed by a panel of speakers including Len Weinglass.

We hear an excerpt from a speech delivered by Heidi Boghosian at the Church of the Intercession. The event featured Esteban Lazo Hernandez, Vice President of the Cuban Council of State, director of its International Relations Committee and long time revolutionary leader. He was joined by Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque. We will hear more of their speeches in the weeks to come.